I just want to be clear, since I've never played in a league with them before - how does the max games played work? Is it for the whole season? Is it man-games?

it's for each position. so say your centre max games are 180 total. once u dress 180 centre starts, u can't do so anymore after. typically, a few positions in the last week or so get maxed out. depends how balanced your team is? dmen usually end up playing less than the max.